Raghuram Rajan connects mouldy banking system to latest tech version

MUMBAI: Technocrat central banker Raghuram Rajan quietly and carefully grafted India’s IT muscle and sinew into its mouldy banking system seamlessly stitching the speed of innovation to a path of incremental liberalisation and in the process became a guiding light for financial technology companies.

"When there is uncertainty then it is easy to say No. But saying no prevents the system from developing. What should be the preferred thing to say is wait, we should watch it and see how better the regulation can evolve," Rajan had said regarding innovative technologies in banking. And he oversaw a quiet revolution by following the Chinese saying he was fond of "Cross the river by feeling the stones."

Under Rajan’s watch was ushered two of the biggest innovations in the banking sphere UPI (Unified Payments Interface) and BBPS (Bharat Bill Payments System). While UPI is aimed at making peer-to-peer payments hassle free, BBPS is expected to make bill payments happen anywhere across the country.

'Cashback' is a term that the India’s youthful consumers relate to most these days, and that too was because of Rajan’s attempt to smoothen retail payments. On December 2014, the RBI came out with the revised guidelines on operations of PPI in India. The guidelines allowed functioning of mobile wallets, paper vouchers, smart cards and internet accounts whose products are the Freecharge, Paytm and Citrus Wallets of the world.

"Rajan had done a lot to revolutionise the payments landscape of the country never stopping innovations. Now, in his absence, it is to be seen if the regulator remains at the cutting edge of technology and allows the fintech space to flourish," said Amrish Rau, managing director, Citrus Pay.

Rajan was very current with behavioural trends and had noted that lenders could make better lending decisions by studying the social media. "There is tremendous amount of information about the customer that is made available through social media habits and various kinds of products being used by them," he said.